


Rest

by karvolf



Category: Death Machine (1994)
Genre: AU, Gen, Post-Canon, Weyland and Yutani got better bc they deserved to, fluff i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22486840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karvolf/pseuds/karvolf
Summary: It's 2AM and Hayden Cale can't sleep.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Rest

Hayden Cale snuck out of her bedroom, closed the door as quietly as she could and tiptoed to the living room. As she walked near the guest room she listened for a second, relieved to hear loud snoring coming from the other side of the door. In there, Raimi, Weyland and Yutani rested, their dreams hopefully untroubled. As she sat on the living room couch, Hayden sighed and tried to make herself comfortable, pushing the cushions and blankets around without being able to relax.

Finally she gave up, turned on the TV and put her head on the armrest, resigned to spend another sleepless night. Unlike her guests, she had found her own dreams troubled by shadows and claws and piercing blue eyes for months now, horrific memories keeping her awake at night until she eventually collapsed from exhaustion. She had tried listening to music, taking long baths and reading books. None of it worked, and the sleeping pills suggested by her doctor had stayed untouched; the idea of artificial sleep made her too nervous to try them.

So she watched TV, distracting herself until sleep finally came. Not being alone in her apartment helped too; initially she had only offered Raimi, Weyland and Yutani to stay for a week or two, hoping to give them time to land back on their feet as their wounds slowly healed. Two weeks had turned into two full months, and she now found herself dreading the moment when they would decide to leave and go back to their own life. She reached for the remote and changed the channel, stopping on infomercials. Those always made a good background noise, hopefully they would help her fall asleep. At the very least they would provide a distraction.

The sound of light footsteps approaching from behind her made her flinch and sit up as fast as she could, and she let out a sigh of relief when she saw Yutani standing in the doorway. He gave a small apologetic smile and stepped closer, stopping next to the couch and looking at the TV.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?” Hayden asked.

“Nah, just some bad dreams. I’m fine.”

After spending some time around the man, Hayden found it hard to believe these two last words. It was impossible to tell if Yutani really had nightmares, but she could tell by his posture and the tension in his neck that the deep scars all over his body must’ve made him suffer. Yutani was proud to show them to anyone who asked, but the wounds were far from completely healed and would not be from a long time. Pain or not, he almost never talked about it.

He sat in the opposite corner of the couch, taking her silence as an invitation. They wouldn’t be able to sleep, but anything that could make them feel less alone was good.

“Still having nightmares?” Yutani broke the silence, looking at her. “Raimi said he heard you the other night.”

“Yeah, they’re… pretty awful,” she admitted, very much wishing Raimi would’ve kept that information to himself.

“He worries about you.”

She could not help it and smiled a little, muttering an embarrassed “thanks”. As much as she did not like talking about her problems, it was nice to know Raimi, Weyland and Yutani cared (Yutani never spoke if he did not care, and he was next to her right now after all). Anything that made her feel less alone these days was more than welcome.

A comfortable silence settled between them; Yutani rarely made small talk, and Hayden was too tired to attempt it anyway. Eventually getting tired of watching commercials he picked up the remote and changed the channel, stopping for a few minutes to check on the news before settling on a movie, a quiet court drama.

“I think I’ve seen that one,” Hayden mumbled. “The main guy dies at the end, right?…”

“Weyland would know, he’s the one who watch-”

Before Yutani could finish, the shuffling sound of feet on the floor caught their attention. They both turned their head to see Weyland walk by, his eyes half-closed at he went to the kitchen for a glass of water. In the dim light of the room he looked almost healthy again, the burns on his arms and face hidden by shadows. Like Yutani he rarely mentioned his injuries, acted like he was doing fine even though on some days he struggled to even get out of bed. Walking back to the living room, a bit more awake this time, he noticed his friends on the couch and stopped.

“Yutani was just talking about you,” Hayden said with a smile.

“He was?” Weyland blinked.

Yutani smirked. “Saying you’re the kind of nerd who’d like this movie.”

Weyland yawned, looking at the TV. “Hm? I’ll watch a few minutes with you guys, I guess… ” He sat on the couch next to Yutani, wriggling and trying to make himself comfortable. He was still shy enough around Hayden to avoid leaning against her, instead settling for resting his head against Yutani’s arm. As he turned his gaze towards the TV, Hayden noticed that he was not wearing his glasses - whether or not the film was good did not matter: he wouldn’t see most of it anyway.

From time to time Weyland would ask something about the movie -questions about the characters and plot that neither Hayden nor Yutani could answer- and Yutani would snicker when a character would say a particularly cheesy line, but for the most part Hayden stayed quiet, content with not being alone and still hoping to sleep before the end of the night. It was easer to forget about everything when surrounded with friends; when she wasn’t alone the memories of bloodied claws and death felt less vivid, less real. The reminder that her friends had, against all odds, survived this nightmare with her helped a lot too. Maybe this was why she hated the thought of them going back to their own lives so much: it would be a lot harder to remind herself that they were okay if they were not sharing a living space anymore.

“What’s going on? What’re you doing?”

She turned her head towards the voice, Yutani and Weyland doing the same. Standing behind the couch, Raimi looked pitiful; a blanket held tight around his shoulders and his dark hair sticking out in all directions. He had this tired, lost puppy expression that never failed to make Hayden smile.

“I woke up and no one was there…” he whined.

“You wanna watch TV with us?” Weyland asked. “Didn’t mean to leave you behind, dude, you can still come if you want.”

Yutani nodded in approval and Hayden scooted a bit to make some room on the couch so Raimi could sit between her and Weyland. Still looking half-asleep, Raimi curled up and made himself comfortable, leaning a bit against Hayden, then stared at the TV and muttered:

“Your movie looks boring.”

Yutani smirked, mouthing a quiet “told you so” at Weyland who rolled his eyes in answer. Despite Weyland’s occasional comments on the film, it didn’t take long for Raimi to fall asleep again, his breath slowing down and the occasional soft snore escaping his lips as he leaned more heavily on Hayden. She didn’t push him away though. In the dim light of the living room, surrounded by her friends, Hayden Cale finally fell asleep, and this time nightmares did not find her. 


End file.
